Crew quiets Wrigley with big 1st inning en route to 9th straight win

CHICAGO -- So what if Mark Canha invented a word Sunday when he described the Brewers’ sudden knack for scoring runs in bunches as “offense-ing?”

He may be on to something.

Make it a nine-game winning streak for the hot-hitting Brewers, and this time, the rival Cubs couldn’t win to keep pace. That’s because Milwaukee’s latest big inning -- a four-run first that was bookended by Christian Yelich’s leadoff home run and Canha’s two-run shot -- came at Chicago’s expense in a 6-2 win on Monday night at Wrigley Field.

“To start out a road series and a game that everybody’s anticipating a good atmosphere from the crowd, doing that to the home team in the first inning -- what more can you ask, really?” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “You couldn’t start a game out better.”

Yelich’s Statcast-projected 416-foot, 108.9 mph home run on Cubs starter Jameson Taillon’s third pitch was quite an opener to a three-game series that, if it continues to go the Crew's way, could help settle the National League Central. With the victory, the Brewers (74-57) moved five games ahead of the second-place Cubs (69-62) with 31 to play and the Reds (68-65) within striking distance behind that.

There’s also the head-to-head matchup to monitor, since it would settle things in the event of a tie atop the standings. Milwaukee improved to 5-3 against Chicago this season with five matchups remaining.

“We haven’t worried about how many [wins] in a row it’s been,” Yelich said. “It’s just really been about that night, thinking that you’re 0-0 and you have a zero-game winning streak and you just have to play well that night.”

The Brewers will try to make it 10 in a row on Tuesday night behind their ace, Corbin Burnes, with closer Devin Williams fully rested. Wade Miley started the series opener and limited the Cubs to a pair of solo home runs over six quality innings before Elvis Peguero and Joel Payamps covered their usual duties in the seventh and eighth and reliable lefty Hoby Milner handled the ninth with a four-run lead.

All of them pitched with a lead thanks to an opening inning that began with Yelich’s fifth leadoff home run this season.

“Starting off games like that is the ultimate momentum-builder,” Counsell said.

For the bulk of this season, the Brewers have played brilliant defense and pitched well in spite of a spate of injuries to starting pitchers. But they weren’t hitting much. When the Crew departed Los Angeles late on the night of Aug. 17 after getting swept by the Dodgers, the team ranked 22nd in the Majors with 4.23 runs per game and 27th with a .686 OPS.

Then the Brewers started hitting -- and winning. During the nine-game winning streak, Milwaukee has averaged 7.1 runs per game and scored no fewer than five. In five of the past six games, the club has cobbled together an inning of at least four runs.

“We just have good at-bats,” said Canha, who had two hits during the Brewers’ seven-run rally in the sixth inning of Sunday’s come-from-behind win over the Padres in Milwaukee. “We’re doing a little bit of everything.

"We’re walking. We’re hitting for power. We’re just getting on base and also cashing in runs with runners in scoring position. We’re just kind of ‘offense-ing.’”

That’s one way to put it. Here’s another: Among NL clubs, only the Phillies (.982) have a better OPS than the Brewers (.837) since the start of Milwaukee’s winning streak.

Is this dramatic turnaround sustainable?

That’s a question for others to answer, Yelich said. Inside the clubhouse and in the batter’s box, the questions are different.

“We haven’t been, and we’re not one of those teams that’s going to go out and be an offensive juggernaut. But that doesn’t mean we can’t put some runs on the board and do enough to win, play really good defense and pitch well,” Yelich said. “Whether it’s sustainable or not, we don’t really look at it that way. We just look at, ‘Can we do enough to win that day? What does tonight require of us?’ Everybody takes their at-bat based on the situation, and you [try] to be a productive hitter.

“Then the next guy comes up, and the next guy comes up.”

And then you have a winning streak.

Asked his perspective on winning nine in a row, Miley didn’t flinch.

“Ten in a row’s going to be better,” he said.